


Stolen Moments

by pherryt



Series: SPN GENRE BINGO [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cas is briefly hurt, Castiel/Meg Masters - Freeform, Dean Winchester/Jo Harvelle - Freeform, Dean and Jo have kids, Dean has a panic attack, F/F, F/M, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, No cheating, Secret Relationships, Some angst, brief non explicit sex, everyones okay with it, hurt comfort, lots of feelings, twins Emma and Jack, vaguely based on southern gentry, willow tree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 05:46:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15701043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: When the only way to be with the one you love is in those moments when no one else is looking...Dean and Cas both married for the sake of convention and so, it turns out, did their wives.





	Stolen Moments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unforth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforth/gifts).



> An accidental side along prequel to At the Gazebo, both written for the SPN GENRE BINGO - this is the Secret Relationship square which Unforth totally picked out randomly after picking Destiel for it. 
> 
> I'm not sure the way I broke this up works? I wanted it to be as the title says, so the story focuses on snippets here and there. Let me know if you liked that. :D
> 
> Not Beta'd...

“Dean!” Cas shushed, stilling even as Dean bit his lip against his keening cry. “Do you  _want_ us to get caught?”

Dean shook his head emphatically. “No,” he choked out, reaching for Cas with trembling hands. This was still so new and so forbidden that Dean was scared that Cas would deny him – deny  _them_.

He didn’t think he could go back to living the way he had before Cas and he…

Dean shuddered, pulling at Cas desperately. “Don’t, don’t…don’t stop, _pleeeease_ don’t stop…”

Cas relented, shifting them both till they were as close as they could be. He started moving again, kissing Dean fervently all the while. The kisses were intoxicating – and had the extra added benefit of keeping Dean silent. The other sounds they were making, the ones they could not help but make with every shift of their hips, were small enough that in such a secluded place as they’d found themselves, the two of them would not be discovered.

Too soon – always too soon – it came to an end and they both stilled, breathing hard, panting into each other’s necks, their fingers grasping tightly the clothes each of them still wore. Both were reluctant to let go, to lose this moment of time when they could just be together… but eventually, fear of discovery and sense of duty won out.

Cas pulled away, smoothing down Dean’s shirt. He took out his handkerchief and cleaned Dean up, before setting himself to rights as Dean finished fixing his own clothes.

In mere moments, the two of them stood beside each other, their clothes showing no sign of what they had done, though they were, perhaps, a trifle damp in places. Their cheeks, however, were still quite pink from the exertion. Dean’s hands carded through Cas’s hair, attempting to put it back together as Cas did the same for Dean.

“There, you should be presentable enough now,” Cas said.

Still they lingered until Dean’s head tilted, having caught the edge of someone calling. He sighed. “I think that is my wife looking for me. And if Jo is looking for me –“

“Then I should find Meg before she realizes that I am also missing.”

“Do you ever --“ Dean stopped, gulping.

“It is not cheating when your wife does not wish for you to touch her and cares not where you find diversion. I just have not told her that I prefer not the pleasures of another woman.” Castiel let his hand trail down Dean’s cheek. “And neither are you cheating on Jo. You have already explained to me that neither of you wished to wed, that she was too like a sister to you, but that you were forced to do so to help her family, that you each bedded the other for the sole sake of children.”

Dean captured Cas’s hand in both of his, raising it up to land a trembling kiss upon it. “How do you always know what I’m thinking?”

“I’ve known you, and watched you – pining greatly, I might add – for too long not too. Do you not find it the same?” Castiel asked.

“I do know you better than I think I know anyone, even my brother,” Dean admitted. His head rose as he sighed. “Jo is still calling. I better go out and do my duty as the master of the house.”

They parted, finally, both making their way back to the more populated portions of the house. It was a sprawling estate – the Winchesters had been a larger family, once upon a time, but tragedy had seemed to strike their family too often – and it lended many places for secret liaisons such as the one they just had.

It burned Dean that he had to keep Cas a secret. He loved the other man so greatly that he wished to yell it from the rooftop, no matter how uncouth such an action was for a gentleman of means. Yet Dean daren’t even tell those closest to him.

The idea that he had to hide such a pure love as he had for Cas… it made him feel unclean.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was one of those hard to come by moments, the house quiet as the ladies had gone on an excursion while the servants, what few of them Dean and Jo held, were busy in another portion of the house. Cas and he lay cuddled as they rarely had chance to be. Cas’s head was on Dean’s shoulder and Dean’s hand stroked lazily up and down Cas’s arm. They were still clothed. Not every secret meeting had to be…  _that_ \- as pleasant as it was - and they were just reveling in the quiet space they had to be themselves.

Moments without interruption were all too rare and thus treasured highly.

“How  _did_ you and Meg wind up together anyway? You are so unlike, it strikes me odd.” Dean broke the silence.

Cas chuckled. “You’re not wrong. Yet I do love her, in my own way, and I think she does me, in hers. It simply is not the love of man and wife, not as it was meant by our families.”

“As Jo and I are the same,” Dean remarked absently.

“Indeed. When my family lost everything, you know that I was considered too high class to marry just anybody, yet I was too low for most of our peers to even consider. Meg was in a particular position of her own, where she’d lost all of her suitors due to her attitude towards all that tried.” Castiel smiled wryly. “You’ve been on the end of her sarcastic wit, and she _likes_ you, so you can imagine how her suitors felt.”

Dean shuddered. He could indeed.

“She was particularly brutal to those who courted her and not many men wish to face such every day,” Castiel continued. “But you well know how things are. Independent and fully capable as she is, she could not remain unmarried and her family had run out of options. So it was arranged. Our first meeting was very nearly… volatile, till we understood each other. While I have never come right out and said that I preferred men, I think by the end of the conversation, she must have realized. Meg is too smart not to. Have you ever considered…?”

“Considered what? Telling Jo?” Dean shuddered again and ducked his head down to hide in Cas’s hair. “No, I couldn’t…”

“I am surprised. You taunt the edges of being discovered every time we’re together, yet you are reluctant to tell those you trust and love. Do you really believe they’ll treat you as less?” Castiel said softly, turning to gather Dean in his arms.

“I cannot risk that they will. And I will not lose you,” Dean choked.

A bell rang through the house and they reluctantly parted. Dean, apparently, had guests, and the servants would be looking for him.

He must, once more, take on the roll that had been left to him.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dean reined in his horse a good distance away from the house.

“Dean? Why are we stopping here?” Cas asked.

“I stole us a snack from Bobby’s kitchen. Figured you might be a bit hungry just now.” Dean swung down from his saddle and led the way toward the old willow tree, pushing aside the hanging leaves. He looked back at Castiel. “C’mon, what are you waiting for?”

“I didn’t know this was here,” Cas said, ducking in, leading his own horse inside the canopy.

“I almost forgot it myself. Sam and I were riding the other day and I rediscovered it. I’ve been thinking,” Dean turned back to his horse and opened the bag he’d tied there. “We haven’t had much time to ourselves, lately, and this is a nice spot away from prying eyes.”

Cas smiled, dropping the drooping branches. He walked over to Dean and wrapped his arms around him. “God, I love you.”

Dean’s breath hitched. “Y-you do?”

“Of course I do, Dean,” Cas assured him.

Dean’s arms came up around Cas, holding him tight. “I love you, too,” he choked out. “I never thought you could… You lost everything, Cas, and I thought you might resent being here… thought you would consider my generosity as pity. I had no hope you felt the same as I.”

“I never thought that of you, Dean,” Castiel promised. “I know your generosity and kindness was well meant and _never_ about pity. I may have once been bitter, but I have since realized the unique position it leaves me in and I am much happier thus.”

Cas drew away, just enough to peer up into Dean’s eyes and Dean’s breath caught. “I get to be here, with you, at nearly all times, even if it is not exactly as we might wish. But it does leave me in enviable position. I now have the excuse to stay close to you… I get to live on your estate because you gave a dear friend who had nowhere else to go a job, and because we were once friends, propriety looks the other way – though it may still yet frown - when we inevitably spend time with each other. What we have is “understood”, though it is in truth _misunderstood,_ and I’m okay with that.”

“I will never resent being here Dean, being with _you,”_ Cas said softly. “I am thankful every day for being able to be such a great part of your life, and you mine.”

“And I, you,” Dean smiled at Cas fondly. If the food grew cold and the drinks warm, it was not of import.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dean watched his twins – Emma and Jack, only 3 years old – playing on the lawn as he passed out Croquet Mallets.

The day was beautiful, absolutely perfect for the small garden party Jo had wished to throw. A warm sun shone down upon them and there was just enough of a breeze to take the edge off the heat.

It was just a small affair, the only guests themselves: Dean and Jo, Meg and Cas, Sam and Jess, Ellen and, of course, the children. Dean smiled happily. Even his servants, given the day off to enjoy the day, milled about as well. It had taken Dean a while to convince some of them that it was okay to mingle with the family. He kept as small a staff as he could get away with for a variety of reasons, and one was for privacy, sure, and the other was because these people would live with him, and he wanted to know each and every one of them. Jo had agreed and so had Sam.

And besides, it was too nice a day to let anyone waste it away inside the hot house.

Unorthodox as it was, this was his family, even if he couldn’t be open about the whole of it.

His and Cas’s fingers touched and lingered as Dean passed the mallet over to his best friend and lover, Dean’s fingers tingling and his breath catching. He held back the smile he wanted to share with Cas, knowing the overly fond look would give them away, and he pulled away reluctantly.

Just as Dean let go, Jack ran up to Cas and latched himself onto the man’s leg. Cas laughed that deep rumble of his that Dean always felt in his bones, and picked up the toddler.

A hand was placed on Dean’s arm and he turned to find his wife there, smiling.

“Sometimes, I feel like Jack is more Castiel’s son then our own,” she said with a laugh. “Emma, though, she definitely takes after  _you_. Rufus caught her this morning trying to sneak into the stables, a pocket full of carrots for your horse.”

Dean laughed, blushing at the thought that Jack could be Cas’s son. Dean secretly liked the idea, as impossible as it was, and he was glad his and Jo’s children adored Cas. Without any prompting on Dean’s part, they’d taken to calling him Uncle and Meg, by default, had become their aunt.

Honestly, Dean was just glad everyone got along so well, that his loved ones all cared for each other in some capacity.

Emma, never far behind her brother, ran over to Dean, her little white dress bouncing around her legs as she begged to be picked up. White was probably the worst idea for a child that liked to get into as many scrapes as she did, but it seemed to be what most young girls wore so Dean didn’t argue. He picked her up with a grin and she squealed happily when he did.

Later, the scene replayed in his head as he and Cas sat alone in the drawing room playing cards.

“Do you ever regret it?” Dean blurted out.

Cas looked up at him, head tilted in that way of his. “Regret what?”

“Not having children? I see how you are with Jack, and even Emma adores you. You’re so good with them. Don’t you ever wish you had some of your own?” Dean bit his lip and stared at his cards.

“Meg doesn’t want to bear children – she said so herself, and I don’t mind not having to worry about providing for future generations. As for the joy of having a child around… I am content with yours.” Cas smirked. “And when they are no longer a joy, I can send them back to you and Jo.”

Dean let out a surprised laugh and shook his head. “Ah, don’t ever change.” Dean lay down a card and Cas picked one from the deck, staring down at his own hand now. “Jo thinks Jack is much like you. It’s a good thing Emma is like me and the two are twins, or the neighbors might gossip.”

“Does that bother you?” Cas looked up again at Dean, his eyes now squinted in worry.

“What? That people might think him yours, or that he is like you?”

“Either, or both.”

Dean hummed as Cas finished his turn and turned his attention to the game again, drawing his words out slowly. “I… I actually wish we _could_ have kids together, Cas. I know it’s not possible, but seeing how like you Jack is, it actually makes me feel… happy. Almost like I get a piece of you that other people never will. It’s almost like he really is ours, together and that’s… that’s something.” He shrugged and grinned sheepishly, nervously, “I’m sorry. That’s not a very well put together thought.”

Cas lay his cards face down and reached out for Dean’s, moving it aside as well. As soon as all hands were empty, he took both of Dean’s hands in his and stared fondly into his eyes. Dean could feel the blush rising on his cheeks and he ducked his head but could not bring himself to tear his gaze away from those fathomless blue eyes.

They must be fathomless, for he always got lost in them. It was easy to do.

“It was put together enough, I think,” Cas said softly, “for me to say that I agree. And as long as you don’t mind, I will think of both Jack  _and_ Emma as mine, after a fashion. They are not of my body, but I can feel them in my soul. I have never said as much before because I don’t seek to deny you or Jo your own children, and was worried that you would think such presumptuous.”

“Never, Cas,” Dean smiled. His thumbs caressed Cas’s hands where they held him, warm and strong. A sound in the hall had Dean’s smile fall away. He cleared his throat and they both let go, picking up their hands once more in time for the door to open and Jo, Meg and Ellen to appear.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dean sat in his study, flipping the pages of a book Cas had given him for Christmas only a few weeks earlier, killing time till Cas’s return. Ellen was spending time with her grandchildren while Jo and Meg worked up some plan or another that Dean had been told in no uncertain terms wasn’t ready for his input.

Left with free time, he would have spent it with Castiel, but as steward of Dean’s house, despite being his friend and lover too, Cas actually had his own errands to attend to, and this day those errands had taken him into town by horse.

And Dean was quite bored.

That boredom ended quickly with a commotion just outside the front door. A yell was taken up and echoed through the house. He dropped the book immediately, albeit carefully – it was a gift from Cas, after all – and strained his ears. The yelling he realized, sounded quite panicked. Dean was upon his feet in an instant, racing out of his study to find out what had happened.

He found the front doors were wide open, letting in a blast of cold air that was unusual this far south.

The snow that accompanied it was more than unusual, it was unheard of – at least in Dean’s lifetime.

He might have spent some time marveling at that, calling Jo to bring the kids – when would they ever get the chance to see the like again? – but then Dean’s heart stopped at the scene before him.

Rufus was fighting with Cas’s horse who was rearing – frightened silly by something… _Maybe the snow,_ Dean thought absently with the part of his mind not currently panicking at the sight of Cas, laying all too still, half on the cold ground and half on the wide, shallow stone steps leading to the door.

“Cas!” Dean shouted out. He stumbled forward blindly, almost tripping as he did. _No, no, no, no, no!_

When he reached Cas’s side, Dean fell to his knees, unable to hold in the anguished cry that left his mouth in that moment. His fingers trembling, he reached for his lover.

Before he could touch Cas, someone grabbed him under the arms and dragged him up and away. He fought to get back to Cas’s side, tears rolling down his face but he was manhandled back inside and shoved into a chair.

Instantly, Jo was kneeling beside him and taking his hunched over body into her embrace. “Shhh… It’s okay, Dean – “

“It’s not okay,” Dean choked, his breath coming much too quickly and rough. He well remembered the accident that had taken his mother from him. It had been a freak thing, and she a well accomplished rider, but she’d been thrown from her horse and had hit the ground badly.

She hadn’t survived the fall.

Dad hadn’t long survived her death.

_What if Cas - ?_ Already Dean could feel a vise constricting his chest and he gasped, trying to get air. _He wasn’t moving… had he been breathing? Why didn’t they leave me there?_ Not knowing was making it worse and Dean’s gasping got worse.

“Dean, he’s still alive, just knocked silly. Bobby and Rufus are bringing him inside now, and Garth has gone for the doctor. You _have_ to calm yourself before Doctor Julian gets here or you will cause _all manner_ of rumors,” Jo admonished and reassured at the same time.

Dean clutched at her arms, focusing on the most important part. “He’s still alive?” he whispered.

She rolled her eyes at Dean. “That’s what I said, is it not?”

Dean nodded slowly and she sighed, using the sleeve of her dress to wipe at his eyes. “I know you love him, Dean, but you need to get a hold of yourself, for both your sakes. And for mine and Meg’s as well. We have as much at stake as the both of you if the truth comes out. If you can _not_ calm yourself, then I will not allow you to be at his side when the doctor gets here.”

Eyes widening, Dean started panicking anew. “I –I… what are you…  “ he choked and stammered. _Jo can’t possibly know what Cas is to me, can she?_

“My dear husband, did you think we did not know?” Jo’s eyebrow rose archly with her words.

“We?” Dean said in disbelief.

“Yes, _we_. The whole of the household knows. The two of you do rather ill at hiding. It is a good thing for you that I have carefully screened all the newest additions to the staff, and the ones who’ve known you and Cas since you were children are practically family,” Jo explained. She watched him carefully. “Are you calm enough now?”

Dean’s mind whirled but he nodded slowly, trying to show that he was, indeed, calm enough to be allowed to see Cas. Worry plagued him and he could be nowhere else, do nothing else, until Dean saw him, saw for himself that Cas was going to be all right.

Jo stood, pulling Dean to his feet at the same time. She took his arm and guided his stumbling steps toward the drawing room where Cas had been laid out on the couch. He was already blinking slowly, coming around although still quite obviously dazed.

As soon as he saw him, Dean pulled away from Jo and rushed to Cas’s side.

After all, if the whole household already knew, and the doctor not yet there, what did he have to hide? He carefully knelt beside Cas, wincing as his knees – abused from his breakdown only moments before – touched the floor. Reaching, he pushed a lock of Cas’s disorderly hair from his face and checked him over visually.

While his clothes were somewhat dirty, Dean didn’t see any blood and Cas’s limbs were all at natural angles. Dean breathed out a sigh of relief.

“God, Cas, you scared me so damn much,” Dean whispered hoarsely.

“I’m sorry, Dean. I didn’t mean to,” Cas croaked.

“Well,” Dean huffed, “Just don’t do it again okay?” Dean swallowed against a lump with an uneasy look back at his wife – and Meg too, he realized – before leaning in enough to gently touch his forehead to Cas’s. A tear fell down his face and dripped onto Cas’s. “I told you before, I don’t think I can lose you…”

Calloused fingers touched Deans cheek, Cas’s thumb rubbing at the tear trail while his hand cradled Dean’s jaw. Dean closed his eyes and leaned into Cas’s palm briefly before pulling away.

The moment was much more intimate a thing than Dean and Cas had ever allowed themselves in public before and Doctor Julian would no doubt be there soon. Jo was right. The doctor could not find them in such a state or it would be bad for both of them.

Cas, unaware of what Dean now knew and still reeling from his fall, slowly realized they were not alone and fear filled his eyes when he caught sight of all those gathered in attendance, including his own wife. His eyes darted between Meg, Jo and Dean, his mouth opening and closing a few times. He was, Dean knew, too much at a loss to know what to say. Dean was in a like situation but he had decided he would just deal with it later.

_Much_ later.

Before the new silence could be broken, Bobby had returned with a cloth bundle that was colder to the touch then Dean had thought possible.

“Here, boy, you help him hold that to his head till the doctor can get a good look at him.” Bobby patted Cas’s shoulder. “You get better quick, Dean’ll be useless till you are.”

He disappeared again and Cas cast confused eyes on Dean, then over to Meg and Jo again.

“I don’t understand what’s going on?” he whispered.

“It’s okay. I’m not entirely sure either but apparently our secret has never been quite so secret as we thought. They’re not mad at us, I promise. Though I think Jo’s going to have a go at me for being overly dramatic,” Dean said softly, bringing the ice filled cloth to Cas’s head, letting Cas guide him to where it was needed most. “Though to be fair, I feared you dead.”

“It will take more than a spooked horse to take me from you,” Castiel said with a small smile. He held his hand over Dean’s briefly but a cleared throat and the sound of the front doors made him drop it back to his side with a grimace.

Hiding was nothing new to either of them, as much as they hated it and though their wives - and seemingly the whole household - may not seem to care about their relationship, they still needed to keep up the pretense of just friends around everyone else.

Dean reluctantly backed away when the doctor arrived, Jo instantly beside him, wrapping an arm around his waist. He leaned on her for comfort in a way he normally never did. “He’s all right, Dean. And so are we.”

“Y'know, lover boy,” Megs voice from his other side startled him, despite how lowly she was speaking to avoid being heard by the doctor, and Dean jerked around to face her. “I’ve had my doubts about you. Cas treats me well, better than I expected, and he’s had it rough with all he’s lost. He deserves a lot, and I was prepared to make sure you knew it.”

Meg paused dramatically. “But you give as good as you get. You’ve a good heart and you make my husband happy. And its obvious he means much more to you than as a mere dalliance. So, I s’pose,” she smirked, “It’s an unusual situation, but you have my seal of approval. You may keep him.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To Dean’s relief, as soon as Doctor Julian had left, with strict instructions on how to care for Cas, Dean was finally able to be unapologetically by his side.

Cas was moved to his own suite of rooms – Meg and he slept separate – and Dean sat beside him, watching him anxiously.

“I’m all right, Dean,” Cas assured him. There was a note of bemused fondness in the tone as Cas rolled his eyes at Dean, though he winced after he’d done it. It wasn’t the first time Cas had said such, but Dean couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

“I know. I can see that you are, I have the evidence before my own eyes, but my heart is still pounding and my head still whirling.” Dean gulped, his eyes wet.

Cas lay propped against the headboard, cushioned by a multitude of pillows and he reached for Dean.

“Come here,” he said softly.

“Cas, we can’t,” Dean said just as softly.

“Dean,” Cas tilted his head at him. “Did we, or did we not, have our wives fairly well give us permission to do whatever we wished with each other behind closed doors? And if I should ask for so innocent a thing as to be held by you, in my time of need, I think the world will not stop turning.”

Eagerly, Dean toed off his shoes and crawled into the bed, settling beside Cas, needing no further urging to do what was always on his mind to do – hold the love of his life in his arms.

Their relationship was still a secret but their realm for where they could be themselves had somehow grown to include their wives, and the rest of the household save the children. Emma and Jack would find out eventually, of course – Dean had no intention of hiding it from them when the time was right - but for now, Dean was content to let them think Cas merely a good friend of their fathers.

They couldn’t be expected to hold such a weighty secret and Dean did not wish to burden any child with that.

It had been hard enough to bear as an adult, and the breath of fresh air that whispered through them and lifting the burden somewhat was a very, very welcome relief.

Dean pulled Cas to him tighter, their fingers twining together as Cas dozed upon Dean’s chest. Dean himself found his own eyes following suit as he finally settled; the jittering and nerves from the scare was finally soothing with the feel of Cas, warm and strong and - best of all – _alive_ in his arms.

They heard not the opening of the door, nor saw their wives carefully peeking into the room, their own secretive smiles upon their lips. Meg and Jo tiptoed in, one setting down a tray of finger foods and drink that would not spoil if left out, the other making sure the curtains were drawn in such a way to allow for some light, but not let anyone see in.

As one, they pulled a light blanket over their husbands then, linking their own hand together, they departed, letting the door shut behind them with a quiet click.


End file.
